Posts tagged Wikileaks

Why is disgraced former New York Times reporter Judith Miller not fond of Wikileaks and Julian Assange? "Because he didn't care at all about attempting to verify the information that he was putting out or determine whether or not it would hurt anyone," she said.

Sometimes I am genuinely surprised when the cognitive dissonance doesn't make somebody's head explode.

In logic, a non sequitur is the fallacy of asserting a conclusion which simply does not follow from the given premises. The world being what it is, I noted a while back that that isn’t a strong enough criticism for some popular arguments; we need a new category, the contrarium sequitur (or contra-sequitur for short), which is the fallacy of asserting a conclusion which is exactly the opposite of the conclusion that you should draw from the given premises.

Any political hack can churn out something that tries to shoehorn unruly facts into a predetermined party line, but it takes a special kind of environment to go beyond mere hackery day after day, to maintain such consistency in coming up with conclusions so exquisitely opposed to what the facts obviously suggest. For example, consider the recent online battle over Wikileaks, and the ongoing government efforts — led by the Obama administration and by Senators like Joe Lieberman — to pressure corporations like Amazon, Dyn Inc. (EveryDNS), et al. into cutting off the Internet services that Wikileaks needs to keep its website running, and to pressure payment processors like PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, and Bank of America to cut off their access to funding, in the interests of national security and the alleged public interest. Many people see this and offer opinions which are better or worse informed, better thought out or worse thought out.

The mirage of revealed preferences. Stephen Smith, Market Urbanism (2010-11-24). I often hear from libertarian-inclined defenders of the suburban status quo that the fact that American is so overwhelmingly suburban is proof that it’s what Americans want. Economists call this “revealed preference,” but it could also be understood as voting with your feet and wallet. People have made the decision...(Linked Monday 2010-12-13.)

Why are they afraid of Wikileaks? Marja Erwin (2010-11-17). The authoritarians claim that we have no right to object to invasions of our privacy and freedom of association. They institute systematic surveillance and sometimes assassinations, including COINTELPRO and its successors, on these grounds. Yet they condemn Wikileaks, calling for internet censorship, arrests, or assassinations. They insist that the people...(Linked Saturday 2010-11-20.)

Does the Punishment Fit the Crime? Daily Brickbats (2010-11-19). Denver police officer Devin Sparks says that Michael DeHerrera tried to punch him and he had to defend himself. But a video showed DeHerrera was just talking on his cell phone when Sparks tackled him, beat him repeatedly with a baton, and slammed a car door on him. The city...(Linked Monday 2010-11-22.)

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